Posts Tagged ‘PC computer speed’

Do you remember how much faster your PC seemed to be when you actually got it? Its not your mind playing tricks on you – virtually all PCs will slow down over time. This is NOT due to the hardware getting old – its due to Windows filling up! Everytime you install ANY program – it ads a few more files to the hard drive (not a problem in itself) AND ads a few more links in the windows registry. The registry is the master file in memory that holds the information about the whole system and how eveything should work together.

So how can you speed the system up a bit? Here are a few guides to help make a difference -

Increase the RAM in the PC. For Windows XP 512MB is minimum you should have. For Vista its 1GB. If you have less than this the system will use the hard drive for virtual or pretend ram, which slows the system down dramatically.

Remove unused programs using Add/Remove Programs in the control panel. This method SHOULD remove the files and registry entries associated with a program, but unfortunatley doesnt always remove everything like it was before the program was installed.

Clean up your desktop – icons and especially files and folder on the desktop slow down boot and screen refreshes

If you use a custom pic for a windows background, make sure its not bigger than the screen size of your desktop (eg if you use a resolution of 1024×768 then use photo editing software to reduce the photos resolution to that first before setting it as a background). This controls how fast screen updates happen.

Turn the PC to fast performance mode (note some people may not like this since it removes a lot of the colourful buttons and links in windows). Go to control panel->system->advanced->performance and set to Adjust for Best Performance. Note which button its on when you go in to it in case you want to go back to your previous settings.

Do a move reload of windows or even a format new install… This is the sort of thing we do all the time to fix Windows issues or speed up the system, but it does require backing up all your data and reinstalling EVERYTHING you have once done so its not normally something we advise customers to do themselves. But it is the ultimate cleanup.